Night Fire on C Street: Tacoma's Laundry Goes Up in Flames
A predawn blaze destroys the Tacoma Steam Laundry and nearby shops, sending two women into the street in their nightclothes.
Tacoma, March 3.—Fire broke out this morning at 2:30 o'clock in the Tacoma steam laundry on C street and did $16,000 damage before being extinguished. The losses are: C. T. Davis, proprietor of the laundry, chiefly on machinery, $12,000, insurance $5,000; Jonathan Smith, building occupied by laundry, $2,000, insurance $1,500; Tacoma Institution for Savings, two buildings, both old, $1,000, covered by insurance; F. H. Burlingham, steam dye works, $100, no insurance; the Wagness photograph gallery, $500; A. J. Felker, household goods, $300. The laundry and other buildings stood on three lots between the Fidelity Trust company's fireproof building and the Chickerling hall building of brick. Mrs. Felker and Miss Felker, who lived upstairs in one building, escaped in their night robes. The origin of the fire is unknown. It had gained good headway before the department was called out.
“Mrs. Felker and Miss Felker, who lived upstairs in one building, escaped in their night robes.”
Before modern fire codes and sprinkler systems, a single laundry fire could threaten a downtown block. The Tacoma fire's relatively modest toll is a reminder of how much of today's urban safety is built on building codes, alarm systems and professional fire departments.
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